Why Employers might Give a Demotion
It is not unusual for an employer to give a demotion in this challenging economy. Different companies do so for varying reasons, however trends have emerged. Sometimes these have to do with the companies themselves and other times the issue is the individual employee. The following are some of these reasons.
The employee does not perform well
Sometimes employees get demoted because they are simply not doing a good job at their current position but the employer does not want to get rid of them altogether. Sometimes it is not one big thing but they are just not meeting their goals or fulfilling all of their responsibilities. It may have been someone who was doing well in a previous job and then got promoted. Perhaps they had been a better fit in the old job, thus the company wants to put them back. For instance, let's say that someone was an excellent used car salesman. He gets promoted to manager. Now he is selling less cars because he is busy with his management duties but he is not a great manager. By demoting him back to a salesperson the company will gain its great salesperson back and lose a bad manager.
The needs of the company change
Sometimes it is not about the individual at all but about the company. For instance, let's say that the company has a marketing department with copywriters and managers and so forth. Now they decide to outsource a great deal of this and the only need people in the lower positions. Instead of letting go of the people, they may demote the employees to lower positions.
The bottom line
Sometimes a demotion stems from money matters. The company may simply not have enough money to keep paying for someone in a higher position. They may not feel like they can ask someone to do the same job for less money so they may demote them. It may be an easier or simpler position with less responsibility, but the money will be less.
It is a punishment
Sometimes someone does something bad in a company. It might not be that they did bad at their job but perhaps they did not get along with people or they made one big mistake. They may have a choice of getting a demotion in this case instead of just losing their job.
Nobody wants a demotion, however they can and do occur. The above reasons are some that are most commonly cited.
